Saturday, November 12, 2016

Virtual Reality Science with MEL Chemistry

Did you ever watch "Dexter's Laboratory" on Cartoon Network and wish you could have your very own science lab? I did and now I do, with MEL Chemistry! And there's a Virtual Reality component! Check out my video demo of one of their science experiments and find out how VR can enhance your learning of chemistry!Disclaimer: MEL Science reached out to me via email after finding my VRinEDU website. They asked me to check out their MEL Chemistry app, specifically it's VR feature. They offered to send me a free MEL Chemistry starter kit and a few sample experiment kits to try out with the app. Below is my honest opinion and review of the kit and the app.

MEL Chemistry Starter Kit, VR Viewer, & 2 Experiment Kits

MEL Chemistry is a mail order subscription service that sends you two experiment sets per month. When you subscribe you receive a Starter Kit which includes all you need to start a small chemistry lab in your home, along with a virtual reality viewer and two experiment sets to get you started.

The MEL Chemistry app would be a great addition for any science classroom! Aside from included detailed instructions and YouTube videos for the experiment sets, it also includes 80+ 3D molecules and their chemical formulas that can be manipulated and examined in virtual reality! Thats where the VR viewer comes in handy!

"The MEL Chemistry app would be a great addition for any science classroom!"

The app is available for both Android and iOS. It can also use your device's front facing camera to detect special MEL codes on bottles and experiment cards to automatically load that content in the app. However, when I was tested this feature on my iPhone and iPad, it didn't work at all.

Overall, I had a lot of fun exploring this very unique and exciting subscription based chemistry service. The app alone is a great resource for the science or chemistry class and the experiments are lots of fun! Recently, MEL Science announced that they received $2.5 million to continue the expansion of their product. I'm excited to see what more they have in store for the at-home chemistry lab and VR enhancements!